There is a lot to like about Casey Walker’s Ithaqua, premiering at FrightFest: from its beautiful photography and stellar performances, to an enrapturing opening act. But it’s this very fact that makes the other elements of the film so unfortunate, for it essentially loses patience with itself, wanting to get to the action rather than embrace the all-consuming horror.
Canadian director, writer and producer Casey Walker, known for The Void, Home Bodies and In a Violent Nature, teams up with the legendary production company Hammer Films to present Ithaqua, a survival horror set in 1821, out in the Canadian wilderness, where the isolated inhabitants of a remote trading outpost become corrupted by an ancient evil.
Ithaqua centres on Cole (Luke Hemsworth), a mercenary tormented by the sins of his past, and his struggles to find food in the desolate forests. Stocks are running low at the trading outpost, and madness is setting in as each starves and drinks themselves into oblivion. One night, a lone indigenous girl stumbles into the fort and is taken in by a nearby indigenous family, Nokomis (Pamela Matthews) and Ahnung (Leenah Robinson), with whom Cole is also in a relationship. Tasked with going back out into the wilderness for food and answers, Cole is accompanied by McKeller (Michael Pitt), Nicolette (Craig Lauzon), LT. Walker (Kevin Durnad) and the meek Hendry (Aaron Poole). But as they journey out, they encounter an insidious force that has already infiltrated their ranks.
In development for over ten years and inspired by August Derleth’s Lovecraftian creation, the Ithaqua, as well as the indigenous folklore around the Wendigo, the film feels comparable to The Ritual, The Thing, Ravenous and more historically accurate period dramas. Initially, Walker does well to blend these inspirations into a cohesive world, allowing the horror, at least for a while, to feel unknown but never far away. However, it deteriorates as the film goes on, losing sight of its worldbuilding necessities and its need for recognisable causality.
Director of photography Bryn McCashin’s evocation of the vast, white wilderness as an indifferent entity elevates this to truly Lovecraftian territory as the film opens, keeping everything beneath the snow until it finally bursts forth. In fact, the entire production of the film is essentially perfect. From wonderfully accurate costumes, weapons, backstories, and character attributes, the film is lovingly detailed and goes a long way toward engaging one in its believability.
The cast do an excellent job of complementing the horror’s insidious nature by allowing it to speak through their deeply human responses. Although some scenes rush the tension by having characters act suddenly, most are excellently rendered and feel appropriately desperate. Standouts include Michael Pitt’s descent into madness and Craig Lauzon’s lovable drunk, Nicolette, both of whom make their already strong dialogue feel even more memorable.
However, Luke Hemsworth’s character feels stark in comparison. His performance, while good, lacks the magnetism that would make it feel less generic. Instead, he comes across as a tool to propel the film rather than a character in his own right. Any attempts to humanise him through often confusing dream sequences of guilt, love or longing come across as simplistic and shallow. It’s not an issue that necessarily detracts from the film; Hemsworth does well to keep it entertaining, but it’s noticeable amongst a cast of otherwise interesting characters.
For all the film’s research, development time, and inspiration, it fails to make the most of its themes, resorting over and over to cliché. A mysterious, mute girl appears and turns out to be evil; there are unspecified rituals and folkloric glyphs, and the indigenous people sense something the others don’t. Over the film’s 1 hour and 40-minute runtime, these begin to chip away at the previously established tone, making it increasingly clear where the story is headed.
The handling of the wendigos is especially disappointing, as they lack any distinctive traits that would set them apart from conventional zombies. The first time they are encountered, it’s in a sudden and almost comedic way that drains any fear of them from then on and renders them somewhat cartoonish. They make zombie-like sounds and move in a similarly beastly way to those in 28 Days Later, and conflict with the pre-established horror of the rest of the film. Although it’s clear how Walker was aiming to present them, he fails to commit to it fully, and they end up feeling generic and inconsistent in their levels of cognisance and speech.
Considering that the majority of the horror centres on the characters defending themselves and fighting back against them (something that shatters much of the tension in the name of pure action), it leaves one feeling at odds with the film.
Like so much work that attempts to capture some essential element of Lovecraft’s horror, the film falters at effectively weaving information, tension or suspense into the fabric of its story. The Ithaqua, though not in need of explanation, lacks a sense of relevance and connection to the wider mythos. It comes in flashes, in dream sequences and then as tantalising glimpses, and as genuinely effective as this is, it still feels underserved. The seeds planted by Walker simply don’t pay off, and instead create a rift between the two aspects of the film: the horror and the drama.
This results in both the Ithaqua and the Wendigos feeling underexplored and poorly fleshed out in a way that isn’t interestingly ambiguous or conducive to the sense of the unknown that Walker was aspiring to. And although the final scene and the thematic/metaphoric connection to Cole are an effective way to tie it together, they leave one just wanting more of that same cohesiveness, weirdness, and horror present in the rest of the film.
There is a lot to like about Casey Walker’s Ithaqua: from its beautiful photography, stellar performances, and enrapturing opening act, it’s clear that Walker has a genuine sensibility for this kind of film. But it’s this very fact that makes the other elements of the film so unfortunate, for it essentially loses patience with itself, wanting to get to the action rather than embrace the all-consuming horror that differentiates it and makes it unique.
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